Donald Trump and Shinzo Abe have agreed in principle to a lucrative trade deal which will assuage tensions that had developed between US and Japan. With the US-China trade war escalating, this provides some, much needed breathing room to the Americans to make up their losses thus far. Robert Lighthizer, the US trade representative, said that the deal would cover sectors like agriculture, industrial tariffs and digital trade; however, auto tariffs would not be affected. The hope is that the deal will be finalized and ready to sign by the time of the United Nations General Assembly near the end of September. Prime Minister Abe was hopeful but expressed that there was still work to be done, namely the wording of the agreement and finalization of the content itself. Trump mentioned that Japan would be buying all the excess corn that has piled up in the US due to the ongoing trade war with China, calling it “tremendous for the farmers”. Abe, however, only referred to a potential purchase of the corn by the Japanese private sector. Japan imports $14bn of US goods every year, and Lighthizer said that it would open up markets like beef, pork, dairy etc. to more than $7bn of such products, leading to a “substantial reductions in tariffs and non-tariff barriers across the board”.
This post has been authored by Naibedya, 1st year, National University of Juridical Sciences, Kolkata.
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